Polling to see what most people are listening on for their home "theater" setup. This is specific to your couching-sitting, TV/movie watching, and gaming. I personally have a 7.1 setup but have a lot of friends and colleagues that are just rocking stereo setups.

I rock a solid 5.1 system at home for all my T.V and Video gaming etc. Couldn't go back to stereo after having surround. My Amplifier supports 7.1 with an additional 2 outputs for "presence" - so buying 4 more satellites is my next step, but I currently don't have the space needed for the correct 7.1 layout on the floor etc. So have decided to wait.

So my system is a dedicated amplifier and separate wired speakers, satellites are passive and sub is active etc. I initially used the built in system setup function for correct allignment and phase etc. But realised that I could get a better sound buy setting it up manually. Which took me a lot of time, measuring space and angles etc, marking the floors where the stands are. Setting sub freq crossover etc.

Worth it though, my system sounds great now, even with middle of the row speakers. Love it. Just wish I could use it for surround mixing my work.

I only have one system that handles all of my gaming, dev, daw, tv, etc duties and I'm currently only on stereo. Upgrading to surround would be a considerable investment for me, but one I hope to make in the next couple years.

I have a 5.1 setup in the living room, and although speaker placement is not terrible, it's also not ideal. That gets used for watching TV, movies, and playing console games. In my office/den I have a nicer stereo setup with Neumann KH120 monitors where I play all my PC games. I'd love to have a full 5.1 setup eventually with the Neumann's, but that's not in the cards (or the budget!) yet. If I really want to critically listen to a console game, I bring it into work and listen in the studio on Adam A7's or Genelecs. Though at work we are still rocking 5.1, not 7.1 setups.